1. Field of the Invention
Provided is a method, system, and program for verifying network addresses included in a file.
2. Description of the Related Art
Oftentimes, Internet Web addresses, also known as Universal Resource Locators (URLs), are embedded in hypertext links within an electronic document, such as a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) page created with a web publishing tool, an e-mail created with an e-mail text editor, and a document created with a word processing document. The person viewing the electronic document may then select the hypertext link to access the page addressed by the URL embedded in the hypertext link. Document authors include hypertext links to provide the reader access to other web pages of interest including related information.
Currently, the accuracy of the URL included in the hypertext link cannot be checked by a spell checker program because the URL itself does not form a recognized English language word, e.g., “www.ibm.com”. Moreover, a document author may believe they have included the correct URL in a hypertext link in the document, when in fact the URL they inserted addresses a web page that is different from the one they intended. For instance, the author may insert the URL “www.whitehouse.com” into a document intending to provide a hypertext link to the official United States government Internet Web page for the White House, when in fact the correct official government Web for the White House is “www.whitehouse.gov”. The author of the web page may be placed in a compromising situation if the hypertext link included in the document incorrectly references an Internet Web page including content entirely unrelated to the intended Web page or including offensive or objectionable material. For instance, the incorrect URL embedded in the hypertext link may reference a web page including objectionable material, such as profane, pornographic, hateful or otherwise inappropriate content. If the Web page is directed to a sensitive target audience, such as children, business associates, potential customers, etc., then such a mistake could be particularly troublesome.
This same problem may occur if the author is preparing an e-mail to send to business associates or other acquaintances and includes a hypertext link to a URL in the e-mail. The e-mail author would face the same embarrassment and problems discussed above by including a wrong hypertext link to a Web page containing material offensive to the e-mail recipients.
For these reasons, there is a need in the art for an improved electronic file editing tool that assists people in including correct network addresses, such as hypertext links, in the electronic file.